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REAUTHORIZATION WISH LISTS -- Here’s what colleges want when Congress reauthorizes the Higher Education Act: More money, and maybe more flexibility, for the Pell Grant. A “zero-sum” approach to consumer disclosures, subtracting an existing disclosure for every new requirement. The ability for colleges to limit how much students can borrow based on what they’re studying, their high school academic records, and other factors. Consolidation of income-based repayment programs. “Maintenance of effort” requirements for states -- without turning federal financial aid programs into block grants. This and more from a long collection of suggestions from the American Council on Education and 39 other higher education organizations: http://bit.ly/1b5MVcW

Going through the motions: The detailed lists of ideas from higher education associations and other stakeholders might not say this up front, but almost nobody expects the Higher Education Act will actually be reauthorized any time soon. The last reauthorization, in 2008, was five years overdue; few expect Congress to pass new legislation before 2015. Still, Morning Education will play along too, and take a look at the proposals from different groups over the course of the next few days. The ACE document -- which represents the official consensus of higher education, at least for now -- is clearly a compromise document. On one of the most controversial issues, the ban on creating a federal “unit record” system that can track students’ outcomes and earnings from K-12 through higher education and beyond, the groups only say they expect it will get a vigorous discussion. But the comments are useful in giving an idea of what Washington’s senior higher ed lobbyists expect to be flash points in the coming debate, whenever it arrives.

HAPPY MONDAY and welcome to Morning Education, where we’re celebrating the 125th anniversary of the first long-distance road trip (http://bit.ly/1b5L5ZK) by planning to ceremonially get stuck in I-95 traffic at the end of the week. Send alternate routes -- and education news tips, gossip, reactions and more -- to lnelson@politico.com and @libbyanelson. And follow us at @POLITICOPro and @morning_edu.

TODAY’S DISCUSSION QUESTION: IS TFA TOO POLITICAL? Critics argue Teach for America has strayed from its core mission -- putting teachers in underserved schools -- and taken sides too firmly on education policy. The Los Angeles Times looks at the debate: “The key backers of Teach for America include foundations that support efforts to expand charter schools, limit teacher job protections, weaken union clout and evaluate instructors by using student test scores. The Walton Family Foundation, for example, last week donated $20 million that will help fund about 500 hires in Los Angeles. Funded by the family that began Walmart, the foundation supports both charter schools and government vouchers to subsidize private school tuition for low-income families.

“New York-based Teach for America asserts that its financial supporters do not influence its direction. Although the Walton foundation has given more money — $100 million — than any other, its contributions still made up only 4.6% of the education organization's national budget last year. Government funding accounted for about 30% of the nonprofit's revenue. Critics, however, are unswayed.” http://lat.ms/1b5Onfy

NO GUNS IN ARKANSAS CLASSROOMS -- The state’s attorney general puts a halt to plans from a small district to redefine some 20 teachers as security guards and allow them to carry weapons. But the district’s superintendent says he’ll fight the decision. From USA Today: “The Clarksville School District was trying to mount its program using a little-known state law that is meant to apply to licensing private security agencies... The school district's volunteer guards underwent 53 hours of training this summer to get ready for fall classes, according to KARK-TV. David Hopkins, superintendent of schools in Clarksville, a community of 9,200 people about 100 miles northwest of Little Rock, says the move was in response to last year's tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.” http://usat.ly/1b5N2VZ

MORE GRADE-GATE FALLOUT -- The Indiana controversy over adjusting grading criteria to ensure a well-regarded charter school got an “A” has spooked some in Virginia, but Maine isn’t put off. The Tampa Bay Times: “The national push to grade schools has slammed into an unexpected roadblock, causing even supporters to question the validity of the widely celebrated A-F system that Florida started 14 years ago... Emboldened critics are calling for school grading to end... Joining the chorus of concern, although at a lower pitch, were some national policy analysts who in the past had offered some of the most full-throated support for school grades as the policy spread across the country.” http://bit.ly/1b5Nofb

ANOTHER ONE FOR WATER COOLER (OR HAPPY HOUR) CHATTER -- A behind-the-curtain look at University of California-Berkeley admissions from a former external reviewer is sure to provoke plenty of discussion -- and probably outrage. With another chance next year for the Supreme Court to overturn affirmative action, many more universities are likely to make their process look more like Berkeley’s. From this weekend’s Education Life section: “In practice, holistic admissions raises many questions about who gets selected, how and why. I could see the fundamental unevenness in this process both in the norming Webinars and when alone in a dark room at home ... First and foremost, the process is confusingly subjective, despite all the objective criteria I was trained to examine.

“In norming sessions, I remember how lead readers would raise a candidate’s ranking because he or she ‘helped build the class.’ I never quite grasped how to build a class of freshmen from California — the priority, it was explained in the first day’s pep talk — while seeming to prize the high-paying out-of-state students who are so attractive during times of a growing budget gap.” http://nyti.ms/1b5LdbN

Berkeley responds: Apparently Ruth Starkman’s essay was considered so devastating that the Times gave the university several paragraphs at the end of the piece to explain its own process. Among the responses: “Calling the in-state/out-of-state argument ‘so political,’ she added: ‘It’s hard to close your mind to it, but in the review process it’s not a factor.’ Nor are candidates compared, she said. ‘Nobody should say we have too many of one and not enough of another.’”

In related news: The Texas attorney general will no longer represent the University of Texas when the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reconsiders Fisher v. Texas, the affirmative action case remanded by the Supreme Court in June. The brief letter announcing the change: http://bit.ly/1b5LxqZ

‘MASSIVE ANXIETY’ AMONG COLORADO TEACHERS -- The state starts grading teachers on their performance this fall. Some districts were ahead of the curve, but the ratings didn’t start counting for tenure until this year. The Associated Press: “Denver is training administrators and teachers in peer evaluations, where teachers will be graded on everything from how they use technology in their lessons to how they respond to pupils who don't understand certain instructions or terminology. Student feedback is also a factor, with children getting to weigh in on how their teachers are doing... By the 2014-15 school year, the ratings can start damaging teachers rated 'ineffective.' Teachers with tenure face losing that status after two years of "ineffective" ratings. Struggling teachers are supposed to receive extra help to improve student outcomes.” The full story: http://bit.ly/1b5JP8W

Model U.N. gets more competitive, flashier and less about the actual United Nations as student-run college clubs proliferate. The New York Times: http://nyti.ms/1b5NRhD

One Nevada district proposed a curriculum teaching that homosexuality isn’t an “acceptable lifestyle,” as sexual education comes under more scrutiny in the state in the wake of a failed bill to standardize curricula statewide. The Las Vegas Sun: http://bit.ly/1b5Kebp

A Florida teacher who’s also a state representative takes pains to stay within a law forbidding campaigning, but is under district scrutiny anyway. The Tampa Bay Times: http://bit.ly/1b5NROD